The Priest's Burden
by The Demo
Summary: Inigo shows up at Brady's tent to ask him for a favor regarding his wedding.


**The Priest's Burden**

* * *

"Hey Brady, may I have a few words with you?" Inigo called into the tent while walking into it. The scarred priest knew better than to try and send away the mercenary at this point in their 'friendship'.

"I already told ya, I ain't gonna be your wing man again. I got enough on my plate without dealin' with your malarky." He replied bluntly, not even looking up from the maintenance he was doing on his staves.

"Ah, you wound me Brady. But I'm afraid neither you, nor anyone else shall serve as my wingman ever again!" Inigo smirked with triumph at his declaration. Brady nodded. "Yeah, probably for the best that you give up now. Not sure there are any more girls left to turn you down. 'Course you could always start on guys if you-"

"H-hey I'm not giving up! Besides you can't give up on a race you've won! You see, I am getting married!" Inigo beamed at his some-what friend, waiting for his reaction. Inigo's statement finally caused Brady to freeze in shock and look up from his work with a look of disbelief.

"What? Mr. Playboy wanna-be is trying to tell me that he's not only trying to settle down but that he found someone to agree to it?"

"Why yes in fact I did. Severa and I are planning to get married." Inigo said still smiling despite Brady's lack of faith in him. With Severa's name, Brady's face changed to one of contemplation.

"Severa huh? As much as I'd like to say otherwise, she's the most likely candidate I guess. Plus, she's probably one of the few dames who could keep you in line. Congrats." Brady said with a sly grin. Inigo blushed as he responded, "Thank you, Brady."

"Anyways, if all you came here for was to brag about your marriage, I'm gonna have to ask you to scram. I got work to do." Brady said as he went back to work on his staves. "Well that's actually not quite everything." Inigo began.

"Then lay it on me."

"Well, Brady, you were trained as a priest, right?"

"What, you did getting engaged make you blind and stupid or something? I ain't working on the staves for fun you know!"

"Well, yes I know you are trained in using staves but I meant priest more in the ceremonial sense."

"Well yeah, I can do some of the rites and such. I ain't much good at 'em though. Prefer to stick to healing."  
"Right, well can you do marriage rites?"

Brady paused as he started to realize what Inigo was getting at. "Yeah, those ones I can do."

"Well, I was hoping you could do Severa and I the honor of marrying-"

"No way." The words came out of Brady's mouth harshly cutting Inigo off. "Wha-. Brady I know we aren't on the best of terms but Severa and I want you for this."

"No means no, punk!" Brady snarled as Inigo recoiled in shock. Brady gave a sigh as he realized his mistake. "I'm sorry man, I just. I don't have too many good memories with marriage ceremonies." Inigo recovered from his surprise and nodded. "Ah, memories from the future huh." Brady nodded slightly in response. "Would you… like to talk about it?" Brady started for a brief moment at the question like he was going to chew Inigo out but let his shoulders slump in resignation as he began to speak, clutching the staff he had been working on.

"Like I said, I'm not that good with the ceremonial stuff. But I know a few of 'em by heart. Death rites are number one and marriage rites are a close second. Know 'em so well because of 'on the job experience'. Turns out being in an apocalyptic hellscape puts people in the marrying mood. When you don't know how long you're gonna live, you wanna get together as soon as you can right? I imagine that's parta the reason you and ol' Twintails are getting married yeah?" Brady directed this question at the mercenary but continued on already seeing the answer in Inigo's eyes.

"Yeah, married a whole lotta sad sacks. Not really anything extravagant like the weddings here in the past. Sometimes, there wasn't anyone who came the ceremony, it was just me sayin' a few words that don't really mean that much and then watching these two lovebirds kiss."

"Course, the marrying people bit wasn't so bad. People appreciated it, for whatever that's worth. It's what happens afterwards that's the problem. First couple I married, I saw a week later in a Risen horde." Inigo gave a sad sigh as he heard this. It wasn't uncommon to see people who you once knew coming back for your life in the future.

"I know that you aren't supposed to treat 'em as human and you shouldn't focus on their faces to much but I couldn't help it you know? And that's just how it went. Marrying one couple only to give 'em their last rites a few days later. Each time just adding to the burden I had to carry. Least they usually died together though. Can't say that for the worst one I've done." Brady said darkly. Inigo swallowed slightly as he listened intently to Brady's story.

"While I was traveling with this mercenary company, we ended up stopping in this fortified town just south of the Feroxi border for a bit and helped out with defenses and such. While we were there I married this couple yeah? Nice people, gave me their whole sappy love story at their ceremony. Both of their families were even able to attend. Turns out the two were childhood friends who always had feelings for each other but never did anything about it. Guess it just takes a little bit of doomsday to make 'em confess. Haha." Brady laughed without humor in his voice, his eyes distant and dark as he brought forth his memories.

"The guy died a month later. I was there when the gal found the body. Poor girl had a damn breakdown, worst one I've ever seen. Could barely pry her off the body long enough to wrap it in a burial shroud. When we put him in the ground she just had those… dead eyes, man. Like a fish, not really feeling, only taking in what was around her. No fire left in 'em." Brady stopped to take a deep breath and pause to collect his thoughts.

"Did she..." Inigo said, not wanting to finish the sentence. Suicide wasn't exactly an uncommon or unexpected action in the future but it was still distasteful to think or even talk about when human life was so valuable. Brady scoffed and gave a soft laugh. This laugh had humor in it, but it was a sick humor.

"Did she off herself? I wish she did. Would've been better that way. Turns out the broad went way further off the deep end then we thought. See, after we had prepared the body, the girl had asked if she could be the one to burn it. You know, so that it wouldn't turn into a Risen. We decided to let her, hoping it would help her get some closure, and decided to give her a little privacy. I ended up having to leave at this point, the company I had been travelling with got called to help defend some trade caravan. So we did the job and two weeks later we come back to find the town in shambles. The walls and gates were all the same as we'd left but the inside was a mess and a lot of people had died, more than you would expect in just two weeks. So, we ask what happened.

"Craziest thing man, that dame who I married and then watched get widowed? She kept the damn body. She kept the body and chained it up in their little apocalyptic love nest so that he'd come back as a Risen. Guess she thought that having him as an undead was better than not having him at all. Well, her family found out, tried to dispose of the Risen and she snapped and freed it so that they wouldn't kill it. Big mistake because it killed her, her whole family, and bunch of other people before it was put down. Guess no one expected for something to come from inside the walls." Brady stopped his recollections here and let the silence hang between him and Inigo.

"I've heard some pretty bad stories, but that one is pretty up there." the mercenary said with a grim frown on his face.

"Yeah. After that I decided I was done. No more marrying anyone. Couldn't stop people from falling in love, but I could at least make sure I wasn't part of it. You know how emotional I get over stupid things like flowers on the roadsides. I had distance myself from all of it. All those marriages, the cries of the widows and widowers. I just… I can't. And I appreciate that you want me to marry you, but I can't." Brady said with a plea in his voice as he looked at Inigo. Inigo sat, digesting this information before responding.

"Can't or won't?" He said simply, a daring look flashing across his face. Brady turned a lovely shade of puce as he sputtered with anger but Inigo pressed forward.

"I understand Brady, not wanting to get closer than you have to. Having memories that you'd rather not deal with ever again. Having little things that you wouldn't think set you off but they do. I get it. I'd say all of us do. And I know what I'm asking you to do for me and Severa but I'd just like you to listen to me for a bit." Brady's face slowly resumed it's color and he gave Inigo a curt nod for him to continue.

"To give marriage rites to people that might as well be meaningless because the happy couple will end up dead soon is rough. It's rough but not meaningless. I might not be married yet, but right now I can tell you how I feel as someone who wants to get married to someone he loves dearly. Even if one or both of us were to be struck down the second the ceremony ended, I would still wish to be married. Even if it was ultimately futile because we couldn't spend our lives together, that affirmation is what truly matters. That we loved each other and wished to be bonded by our love to one another, no matter how short or long that is. And I'm sure that all those couples you married would say the same thing. You did those people a great service Brady, and I'm sure none of them would want you to sit here and feel regret over what you did for them.

"And both me and Severa would like you to be involved in our marriage. You are a good friend to us Brady, both of us, even though my soon-to-be wife would be less than forthcoming on that point." Inigo said with a grin while Brady gave a snort of amusement as he imagined how long it would take for Severa to admit that Brady was a friend of hers.

"The point is Brady, we want you to be a part of us falling in love, along with the rest of our friends, although they might take a less active role in the wedding." Brady gave a huff. "What makes yah think I'll be attending your wedding?"

"Are you saying you have better places to be?" Inigo countered. Brady gave another sigh.

"That still doesn't mean that I'll be giving you the rites. I don't want to give you the whole shebang only for you to..." Brady stopped unable to finish the sentence.

"We won't." Inigo said with confidence. Brady just shook his head. "I'm serious. Neither one of us will die. You know just how skilled the two of us are."

"Skills got nothing to do with it!" Brady replied hotly.

"We are skilled and we've got a lot more people on our side. We've got our parents on our side. And we've got you and the others as well. And to top it all off, Severa's father is Robin. I really doubt our tactician would let his little girl be put in a bad spot would you?" Inigo winked with confidence.

"Oh yeah that reminds me, you ask Robin for Severa's hand? How did that go?" Brady questioned, his eyes now having a glimmer of light in them once again.

"He laughed." Inigo said confidently. "Really hard too. When he was done he told me 'Sure, and maybe Grima will attend your wedding ceremony and cry tears of passion.'. ...I don't think he believed me. But we'll see who's laughing on our wedding night huh?" Brady had a slight blush as he shook his head.

"You make comments like that and that makes me think that Severa's not the one I have to worry about getting sent to the front lines." Brady sighed as he scratched the back of his head.

"So, I'll ask you again, will you do Severa and I the honor of giving us our marriage rites?" Inigo asked, looking his friend in the eyes.

"You'll keep pestering me even if I say no huh?" Brady said as he leaned back, resting on his palms. "No, actually. If you say no now I'll drop it and we can find someone else. You are just our first and second choices." Inigo answered honestly. Brady reflected on this for a moment. At the end he shook his head as he sucked in a breath of air and blew it out, a small grin twitching at his lips.

"Aw horsefeathers, might as well. Whatever cat you drag out to replace me will probably get the rites wrong. Might as well make sure my friends gotta decent wedding." Inigo grew a face splitting grin as Brady gave his answer. "Thank you! Oh this is wonderful Brady! This does mean a lot to us!"

Brady gave a yelp as Inigo threw himself at the taller man with a hug. "Gah! Get off me yah big lunk! I don't want your thanks! Just make sure your marriage lasts for long time, got it!" Brady sniffed a little as emotion began to overcome him. Inigo let go and stood up to walk to the entrance of the tent before turning around to face the priest, his face serious once more.

"Brady, the weight you carry is pretty big. And I hope that by marrying us, that it does something for you too. I hope that when, not if, Severa and I survive, your load can be lightened a little."

"That… I hope that's true too. And hey, it's no good if you just survive. Gotta make it a happy one too. At least as happy a life as you can get with Severa." Brady gave a little snigger imagining the number of tongue lashings Inigo would have to endure.

"I shall certainly do my best. Besides, she's quite easy to manage once you get close to her. And if you could indulge one more question from me I'll be on my way so that you can back to your maintenance."

"Shoot."

"Well we also would like some musical entertainment and I was hoping that you could-"

"Don't push it."


End file.
